The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-11-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Interesting Discourse Evolved
From "Concord and Discord."

1
The Laying OF the Worlds Corncr-stone
and the Grand Peace Subilce-Sin the
Harsh Discort In the Orchestra
| of the Universe.
The subject of recent sermon delivered
by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle was "Concord aud Dis.
cord" predicated on the following text:
! Who laid the cornerstone thereof. when the
! morning stars sang together.-Job xxxviii.. 6-7
| DIR. Talmage said: We have all seen
/ the ceremony at the laying of the corner
stone of church, asylum or Masonic tenn
pie. Into the hollow of the stone were
! placed scrolls of history and import ant
documents, to be suggestive if, one or two
hundred years after, the building should
be destroyed by fire or torn down. We
remember the silver trowel or iron ham
mer that smote the square piece of granite
into sancti:y. We remember some vener.
able man who presided, welding the
| trowel or hammer. We remember also
the music, as the choir stood on the scat
tered stones and timber of the building
about to he constructed. The leaves OF
/ the notebooks fluttered in the wind. and
| were turned over with great rustling
| and we remember how the bass, barry tone,
tenor, contralto and soprano voices COM
mingled. They had for many days been
rehearsing the special programme that it
| might be worthy of the cornerstone lay.
! ing.
In nv text the poet of Uz calls us to q
grander ceremony-the laying of the
foundation of this great temple of a world.
The CONVERSIONS was a block of light and
the trowel was of celestial crystal All
about and on the embankments of cloud
stood the angelic choristers, unrolling
tbsir librettos of overture, and other
worlds clappsd shining cymbals while
the ceremony went on, and God, the
architect,by stroke of light after stroke of
light, dedicated this great cathedral CT q
world, with mountains for pillars, and
the sky for frescoed ceiling, and flower.
ing fields for floor, and sunrise and mid
| night aurora for upholstery.
Who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the
morning stars sang together.
The fact is that the whole universe
was a complete cadence, an unbroken
dthyramb, a musical portfolio. The great
sheet of immensely had been spread ont,
and written on it were the stars, the
smaller of them minims, the larger of
them sustained notes. The meteors
marked the staccato passages, the whole
heavens a gamut. with all sounds, into
nations and modulatiOns, the space be-
tween the worlds a musical interval,
trembling Of stellar light, a quayer, the
thunder a bass clef, the wind among the
trees treble clef. This is the way God
made all things perfect harmony.
But one dav a harp-string snapped in
the great orchestra. One day a voice
sounded ont of tune. One day dis.
cord, harsh and terrific, grated upon the
glorious antiphone. 1t was sin that made
the dissonance, and that harsh discord
has been sounding through the centuries.
All the work of Christians. and philan.
thropists, and reformers of all ages is to
stop that discord, and get all things back
into the perfect harmony which was
heard at the laying Of the cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together.
Before 1 get through, IL l am divinely
helped, will make it plain that sin is
discord and Righteousness is harmony.
That things in general are out of tune is
as plain as to a musicians ear is the un-
happy clash Of clarionet and bassoon in
en- orchestral rendering.
The worlds health out of tune. Weak
lung and the atmosphere in collision, dis.
ordered eve and MONDAY light in quar-.
rel, rheumatic limb and damp weather in
a struggle, neuralgias, and pneumonias,
and consumptions, and epilepsies in
hocks swoop upon neighborhOods aad
oities. Where You find one person " ith
sound throat, and keen eyesight, nnd
alert ear, and easy respiration, and regu-
lar pulsation, and supple limb, and prime
digestion, and steady nerves, YOU find q
hundred who have to be very careful be.
cause this, or that, or the other ply steal
function is disOrdered.
The human intellect out Of tune: Thu
Judgment wrongly swerved, or the
memory leaky, or the will weak, or the
temper inflammable, and the well-bal-
anced mind exceptional. Domestic life
out Of tune: Only here and there con.
jugal outbreak of incompatiblity of
temper through the divorce courts, or a
filial outbreak about fathers will
through the surrogate's court, or a case of
wife-beating or husband poisoning
through the criminal courts, but thousands
of families with June outside and January
within.
Society out of tune: Labor and capital,
their hands on each others throat. Spirit
of caste keeping those down in the social
scale in a struggle to get up, and putting
those who are up in anxiety lest they have
to come down. No wonder the old piano.
forte of society is all out of tune, when
hypocrisy, and lying, and subterfuge, and
double dealing, and sycophancy, and
and revenge have for six
thousand years been banging away at the
keys and stamping the pedals.
On all sides there is a perpetual ship.
wreck of harmonies. Nations in discord:
Without realizing it, so wrong is the feel.
ing of nation for nation that the sy mbols
chosen are fierce and destructive. In
this country, where our skies are full
of robins, and doves, and morn.
ing larks, We have our national symbol,
fierce and filthy eagle, as immoral bird
as can be found in all the pathological
In Great Britain where they
have lambs and fallow deer, their symbol
is the merciless lion. In Russia, where,
from between her frozen north and bloom
ing south, all kindly beasts dwell, they
choose the growing bear, and in the |
worlds hera!dry a favorite figure is the |
dragon, which is a winged serpent,
and deathfui.
And SO fond is the world of contention
that we climb out through the heavens
and baptize one Of the other planets with
the spirit of battle and call it Mars after |
the god Of war, and we give to the eighth |
sign of the zodiac the name Of the |
scorpion, a creature which is chiefly cele- |
brated for its deadly sting. But, after all,
these symbols are expressive Of the way
nation feels toward nation. Discord wide |
as the continent and bridging the seas. |
suppose you have noticed how warmly in